They have stationkeeping systems. Once in orbit there are various celestial forces (gravity, solar wind etc) that over time cause drift.

The circumference of an orbit 20,000 miles up is 125,000 miles or 663.5 million feet. An 1100 foot asteroid takes up only 0.0000016% of that as it passes by. So it’s unlikely it’ll hit anything. In any case satellite operators can see if their orbits actually do intersect and use their stationkeeping systems to adjust…

One of the local news stations interviewed a student who said he would absolutely put on a helmet for 30 minute rides but didn’t see the point for a 5 minute ride. I wonder how many of those 5 minute rides he takes in a week.

If and when this happens the underlying technology will create changes throughout society will make the development of a self driving car seem rather modest. Kind of like those Victorian prints that illustrated their idea of flight in the year 2000 - they just contemplated it as some kind of amusing hobby for the…

I guess there are some baths that are exceptionally tiny where a curved rod juts out too much and interferes with non-showering uses. Not all that common in the US (except maybe some old buildings in the northeast where people converted a closet into a bath). Elsewhere in the world I’ve seen some real bath design oddi…

Today’s gold medal winner in the ignorant internet comments category...

Fun theory but more likely a creative decision. On the technical side there are, actually, standards for contrast of movies in a dark theater and a different one for TV broadcasts in living rooms. And there are all kinds of ‘legalising’ checks that happens for broadcast safety to make sure actual mistakes don’t occur.

I’m not sure what details optics miss that lidar finds, once you have a well functioning optical system. There’s a usability tipping point where the optical engine will outperform the lidar in every situation.

Yes, these are all issues. They are inherent issues with a system that relies on sending out a beam and getting back a return. Even in ideal circumstances the totality of information conveyed is very limited. 

From a psychological point of view a self driving car must be nearly perfect. We don’t really accept machines that make mistakes especially if that mistake ends in death and destruction. Look at the response to the 737 max issues - and that is a very simple system by comparison.

I used to work on lidar mapping code in an autonomous robotics lab. It’s a dead end. It’s confused and degraded by sun, rain, fog, mirrors, glass you name it. Can’t see more than a few dozen yards in ideal conditions.

I can’t speak for anyone else but I’m bored with instagram. And I think others may be too. The bots, the ads, the vapidity of it. I now limit browsing to 5 minutes, 2 or 3 times a week and you know what? I feel good. I still think its good to have a presence professionally but I’m letting automatic posts handle that.…

“Influencer” seems to be the job of choice for the lazy con artist these days. Buy some followers, get a cheap camera, even photoshop yourself in vacation spots you can’t afford and hope that hapless businesses will give you money or free goods and services.

Phones are intelligent enough now to cut off charging when a temperature threshold is reached. They will also slow charging if its okay to do so but it may get warm. Generally it appears modern phones are pretty good at managing this, the odd one in a few million battery fires not withstanding (which probably has to…

I think the more interesting thing in that Times article is how they are partnering with Lyft, Uber, Postmates. Reinforcing the wage-slave nature of those jobs by providing “food” that minimizes time taken away from their low paid piece work grind.

Well, the company prides itself on efficient nutrition so everything so far has been a drink. Seems like this nod to chewing is superfluous.

I believe the Snoo can be rented now. It’s still expensive but it’s only for short term use.

It’ll have urea. The current generation CX-5 has a spot for the DEF filler port next to the gas filler.

I don’t know how I feel about Manwich offering up low-carb zucchini fries. I think some tricky scheme is in motion.

Some of them are actual businesspersons...usually they’ve been at it for awhile and have a business set up around it. However I think many, even most these days, are just underemployed narcissists living a lite-con life. Especially if they actually refer to themself as an influencer.